I sort of *have* put my bike away for the winter. I've decided to
write December off, and drive the car to buy groceries. We need
seltzer anyway -- now that we both drink it, a 12-pack doesn't last a
week and I can't haul it on the bike that fast. [Filled my trunk on
Saturday. Had to put some of my groceries in the back seat, and our
new car insisted that I fasten the seat belts.]
In January I'll take the ten-mile dump tour (library, Owen's, ER,
Goodwill) a couple of times, then, if the roads aren't slick on a dry
Friday, extend it into the spectacularly-easy twenty-mile round trip
to Leesburg: no hills unless I come back the long way, and not much
hill even then now that I know how to avoid Silveus Crossing.
Low-traffic roads all the way, except for having to cross SR15 twice
at Walmart. I have to use a bit of 15 to get across the Tippy, but
just as the wide shoulder runs out, I can turn right and cut through a
housing development to Levi Lee. And if I can't manage the left turn
onto 15, I can go straight and turn around to make it a right turn.
Or I could ride a mile west and go north on 150W instead of Old 15.
On Friday, I read this in Ink-Free News:
http://www.inkfreenews.com/2018/11/2...some-cyclists/
Quote:
Although once in a great while Gunter will ride and not have a
particular destination in mind, he usually prefers otherwise. “I like
to have a place I need to be,” he said, such as checking the Warsaw
Biblical Gardens he maintains.
Riding between Leesburg [where Gunter lives] and Warsaw can be
challenging because there are no off-road trails between the two
towns. Gunter said utilizing the old roadbed of the former Winona
Interurban Railway might be an option for placing a trail someday.
Unquote.
By the way, I can't find any trace of the Interurban on satellite
view, except for McKinley Street (and the sidewalk beside Park Avenue
here in Winona Lake, also a ridge in the mountain-bike trails that I
used to think was an esker.)
Can't find any maps of it on the Web, either, but I did find evidence
that it did go to Leesburg.
--
Joy Beeson
joy beeson at comcast dot net
http://wlweather.net/PAGEJOY/